Christian, Stop Searching For Your “Something More”

Have you ever come across Christians who always seem to be striving, laboring and craving for the ever-so elusive “something more” that God has for them?

For some, this merry-go-round never seems to stop. Aside from the spiritual narcissism behind the incessant motivation, Christians who fail to embrace who they are and what they’ve already been given in Christ become easy prey for the razzle-dazzle, celebrity preachers of our day who love to promise the “something more” to the spiritually vulnerable through their books, conferences and teachings.

This highly popular yet phony teaching is typically presented in either one of two forms:

You must “do” to receive your “something more” experience

Indicative of an Old Covenant performance/reward mindset, the answer to the believer’s supposed dilemma is to simply do something more to receive something more. Just fill in the blank; pray more, give more, fast more, read your Bible more, evangelize more, worship more, etc… and at some undetermined point in time, you’ll receive your “breakthrough experience” with God. Rather than pointing people to the all sufficient Person and finished work of Christ and encouraging people to enter the rest of faith, notice how this teaching clearly puts the onus on the believer to “work” for God’s blessing. It’s the epitome of performance-based, oppressive religion… unfortunately with Christ’s name attached to it. If you’re on this road, take some advice from a fellow sojourner whose been there before; you’re on a dead-end street. Best to get off now and learn to live in the realm of grace than to pass out from exhaustion on the side of the road… becoming yet another casualty of religion.

I gladly stand in and espouse New Covenant grace. Yet I’m seeing a disturbing trend among many grace-folks these days: an inordinate focus on obtaining “new revelation” and deeper knowledge…. on grace! Much of this is being brought on by the many pop-up grace teachers who claim that their “new and better teaching on grace” is what believers need to “go to the next level” with God.

Unfortunately, the religious arrogance that emanates from those who travel this road for too long is no different than the religious arrogance typical of many evangelical fundamentalists; both erroneously think that adding “knowledge upon knowledge” will somehow elevate them to a greater spiritual maturity and “God-experience.”

Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

I mean, how much knowledge on grace does one really need to just get on with life and start living? How much more “deeper revelation” do we need to simply begin embracing God’s love for us, and extending this same love to others? Evidence of spiritual maturity isn’t based on the knowledge we possess, but the relationships we cultivate and keep which bear kingdom fruit. If your “new and better revelation on grace” isn’t translating into fruitful kingdom relationships, then your knowledge is about as valuable as a used paperback at the local Goodwill.

Conclusion

As believers, we’ve been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ (Eph 1:3), are complete in Him (Col 2:10), more than conquerors through Him (Rom 8:37), have been granted everything pertaining to life and godliness through Him (2 Pet 1:3), and are empowered by His love within (Rom: 5:5). Rather than frantically searching for the “something more,” we should be living right now in the “more than enough” that has been freely given to us in Christ. Indeed, the whole “God has something more for you” teaching is nothing more than a side-show distraction to walking in the fullness of Christ and living a life of love right now for the benefit of humanity.

However, encouraging believers to live in this reality won’t keep people coming to (and paying for) our “anointed” conferences, or buying our “breakthrough” 10 part teaching series. By keeping God’s people in a perpetual state of need (there’s more out there for you!), the money continues to flow, the system continues to operate, and the pews (and preacher’s pockets) remain full.

Responses

Brother I found this posting interesting. The second paragraph of your conclusion illuminates something that I have awakened to in my contemplation on the current state of assembling and fellowship within the professed Christian community. I am not sure where the infusion of academic/scholastic practices occurred but it has stagnated the Body of Christ, on our end of course. I was led by the Holy Spirit to the scriptural intent for fellowship to be an assembly of sincere seekers of Christ, God and His ways. These assemblies could be two or more sincere seekers. These seekers must have a committed “feeding’ on God’s Word daily where they ingest God’s Word, without human contrived interpretations, solely under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Pausing after ingesting certain amounts of scripture (for me it is two chapters a day) and being silent before the Spirit to receive illuminations and revelations on God and His ways. Let me stop here to explain that when I use the terms “illuminations’ and “revelations” I am not referring to the gaining of “something more”. Both those terms refer to the Holy Spirit opening our eyes to that which had become hidden. It may have been hidden by God for reasons He deemed necessary or it may have become hidden by the veil of religiosity that one has been wrapped up in by their religious upbringing. At any rate when sincere seekers assemble they should share what the Holy Spirit has opened their eyes to in the scriptures with each other. This is my view of true fellowship. The definition of “assembly” is the coming together of various parts to complete something “whole”. It is implied that each part has importance and contributes. Today’s Christian assemblies have become Dictatorships where a titled individual is the only important part while the assembled parts are not allowed to contribute (except for tithes)…only piled up in pews while the titled part operates. Some assemblies in my region (sadly referred to as churches) have become either school-like or political activist centers…anything but worship and spiritual encouraging centers. I have seen that because the scholastic/academic type assemblies show little accomplishing of actual spiritual growth and developing strong trusting relationships with our Lord the titled ones have come to rely on the humanistic perspective for attempting to accomplish some form of spirituality. Thus such nonsensical crap like “something more” seminars have infested the Christian arena. I had been given the opportunity to facilitate an open fellowship at a church in my area. It was a great experience and everyone enjoyed being able to contribute. We developed the “table process” where each participant placed what they received from their contemplations on the table. All the other participants were free to consider what was placed on the table, accept it or leave it on the table. I knew it was of God because once everyone got comfortable with the process and got into the practice of feeding on God’s Word these fellowships would “flow” with times of excitement when a particular shared revelation would touch the hearts around the table. Then a new Pastor was installed. He notified “his” church members that “he” would be returning the bible study(his words) back to a lectorate. He said he would not allow a bible study where everyone “gave their opinions on God”. He preferred relying on the ” church scholars” and long held interpretations. The last I saw “his” church was down to about eleven members. Imagine a ” professed Christian Pastor” referring to revelations of the holy Spirit as people’s opinions?

As for “something more” this Pastor, like most in the area, holds to promoting “more” commandments, “more” doing…especially with regards to volunteering around the church or attending seminars either at “his” church or another church “he” has found favor with. The worst is “more” showers of regurgitated long held interpretations and gnawing on the stubble of repetitive teachings on scripture.

I really don’t want to conclude in an atmosphere of discouragement. It is my heartfelt view that God has opened our eyes…and I’m sure the eyes of others…for a purpose which will benefit His sincere seekers in His time. I love my connection with Him and my journeys through the endless pastures of His Word. I am always thankful for every moment of exciting revelation and illumination I experience when I am blessed to fellowship with a sincere seeker God brings to my path. God bless!

I like what you said. What you described is similar to what we experience here when a group of us get together at a local coffee shop. We’ll read a portion of scripture, or perhaps a blog-post or relevant article together (silently). Once everyone is done reading, we’ll take some time to silently contemplate what we read, and then the conversation starts. It’s an open and participatory discussion with no pre-determined leader; the conversation goes where it goes. There’s never been a time where it hasn’t been highly encouraging and edifying, as folks are free to share as much or as little as they want. It’s amazing to hear the insight of others who normally would never have any place of expression in today’s typical church environment. Folks also share how the scripture or blog-post relates to them in a personal way; very encouraging because people are actually free to be real and express their hearts and lives.

Paul warned the Church about being swayed from “the simplicity that is in Christ Jesus.” Today’s smorgasbord of religious teachings and sermons has become more of a distraction to living from our heart (where Christ resides) than anything else.

Harry,
Thanks for sharing on your fellowship. I recently lost my Mentor and closest fellowship brother. He went to fellowship with our Lord. (blessed guy!). I am not complaining…just a little down because fellowship has been limited. I know that our Lord saw this and said to my heart, “Hey, Did you forget about My awakened ones on the Relationship Over Religion Blog?”. So with dust on my forehead and donning sackcloth I praise our Lord and thank Him that He in fact has outlets of true fellowship where I can occasionally share what the Holy Spirit blesses me with.

I am awaking to one fact…1 Corinthians 2:14 gives me some awareness. Once you practice living by the Spirit you become offensive to the religious. I see it as the Christ that is reflected irks the Pharisee in them.